Dana Scully

Contents

Dana Scully is calm, collected, analytical, and a perpetual skeptic. She questions everything; her faith, the nature of the world, the validity of the cases she and her partner, Fox Mulder, work. Behind that skepticism is the need to understand how the world truly works, to find the truth in all things. It’s part of the reason she works so well as Mulder’s partner. She keeps him grounded and when things become irrational, she provides perspective, and the skeptical insight they both need. She deals in facts, figures, the quantifiable and places her faith in that.

Her skepticism keeps the world at bay and understandable. The unknown can be as much fascinating as it is frightening and having a familiar base to hold to gives her a safe place to speculate without losing herself. As she’s become more and more involved with the X-Files and drawn deeper into Mulder’s world of strange phenomena, she’s had to lean back on her faith in science and her faith in her religion. Scully’s Catholicism has always been her touchstone, her cornerstone in her life, and the one thing she returns to time and again when situations fall beyond the realm of what science tells her is true. She and her sister, Melissa, were both given gold crosses by their mother at a young age---Scully is rarely seen without hers. That said, she’s a scientist and has, somewhat, distanced herself from her religion. The X-Files, and working with Mulder in particular, has lead her on a path of renewal when it comes to her faith and her understanding of the world she lives in.

Scully seems, at first glance, to be intensely serious, unflappable, and dry. Her sense of humor, however, can be refreshingly bright (when she loosens up enough to let it fly), though it’s fairly twisted and skewed by the nature of the cases she deals with. The same can be said for her witty responses (which are generally aimed at Mulder) when faced with potentially irritating or outrageous circumstances.

Dana Katherine Scully was born on February 23, 1964, to William and Margaret Scully, into a close-knit Catholic family. She has an older brother, Bill Jr., an older sister, Melissa[deceased], and a younger brother, Charles. Scully's father was a Navy Captain, who died of a heart attack in early January 1994. Dana Scully grew up in Annapolis, Maryland and later in San Diego, California. As a young girl, Scully's favorite book was Moby-Dick and she nicknamed her father "Ahab" from the book, and in return, he called her "Starbuck." Due to this she named her dog Queequeg.[A dog that was the victim of Big Blue, a lake monster (NOMNOMNOM) not long after he became Scully's dog.]

Scully attended The University of Maryland, and earned a B.S. in Physics. Her undergraduate thesis was titled Einstein's Twin Paradox: A New Interpretation.[sometimes Mulder quotes from it] While in medical school she was recruited by the FBI; she accepted the agency's offer of employment because she felt she could distinguish herself there. Upon being partnered with Fox Mulder (1992), she maintained her medical skills by acting as a forensic pathologist, often performing or consulting on autopsies of victims on X-Files cases.[more than often, thank you]

In 1994, Scully was kidnapped by an ex-FBI mental patient named Duane Barry,[who was former FBI and a batshit crazy alien abductee] and was taken from Barry by a military covert operation that was working with the alien conspirators. She was later returned, in a coma, but obviously recovered.[though she nearly died] She found out that a super hi-tech microchip was implanted in the back of her neck and after having it removed, she developed cancer.[1997]

Scully is hospitalized after her cancer becomes terminal. After Mulder broke into the Department of Defense to retrieve another chip to be implanted back into her neck, her cancer went into remission. While she lay dying, Scully underwent experimental medical treatments and had a dramatic renewal of her faith.[after her cancer was ostensibly cured by the chip reinserted into her neck]

In November of 1997, Scully found out that she was infertile--a fact which she shared with Mulder. He told her about finding her ova and said that he immediately took them to a specialist, who concluded that they were not viable.

Mulder and Scully investigate reports of a woman, Shaineh Berkowitz, who claims to have seen a monster in her home and become pregnant, in spite of a tubal ligation. She also reports having heard Cher singing. The monster is very similar to a comic book character created by her son, Izzy. Izzy explains that a real monster has been reported around town. He puts out a peanut butter sandwich as bait, the "monster" appears, and they give chase. In the woods, they are stopped by an old farmer who says there is no monster, except for his son, who is a local research scientist. The scientist, Dr. Pollidori, tells Mulder and Scully of his ability to manipulate the genes of fruit flies, but denies that he would ever do such experiments on humans.

The two agents discover a house covered, as if for fumigation. Cher is playing on the stereo. It is Dr. Pollidori's house. His wife is in the bedroom, unconscious. Is she pregnant, like Mrs. Berkewitz? Mulder and Scully also pass out from fumes, but the elder Mr. Pollidori, wearing a gas mask, finds them. They wake up as much as three days later, with several officials and Dr. Pollidori present. Later, in private, Dr. Pollidori confronts his father, and kills him. The "monster" is seen to be a deformed person, with a large head that has two faces on the skull. In a tender scene, he finds Mr. Pollidori's body and buries it.

They trace the chemical that caused the anesthetic fumes to Mr. Pollidori's farm. While they are there, a mob arrives, lead by Dr. Pollidori, seeking to find and kill the "Monster." Mulder and Scully find the young man first, and he addresses the crowd. He was created in an experiment by Dr. Pollidori and the elder Pollidori rescued him and acted as his father. Because the boy could not be seen in public, Mr. Pollidori began learning his scientist-son's art, and caused several pregnancies in the community in an effort to create a mate for the deformed boy. None was suitable, and we see that several people in the crowd display characteristics similar to farm yard animals -- a woman whose head jerks around like a chicken, a boy who is chunky like a pig, a man with a goatee like a goat, etc. The "monster" is a great fan of Cher because of the movie "Mask" in which she played the loving mother of a deformed son.

The crowd concludes "he's not a monster." Dr. Pollidori is arrested for murder. Mulder and Scully take the son to a Cher concert, and end up slow dancing with each other to "Walkin' in Memphis."

This is the last memory Dana Scully has before she is taken aboard Transmigration 9.